Mexican president shares photo of ‘mystical’ elf creature

Mexico’s President has shared a photo of what he claims is a “mystical” elflike creature from Mayan folklore.

Mexico’s President has shared a photo showing what he says appears to be an “aluxe”, a “mystical” elflike creature from Mayan folklore.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador posted the picture on his Twitter account on Saturday, saying it “was taken three days ago by an engineer, it appears to be an aluxe”.

The blurry night-time photo shows a white tree with a branch curled over to form what looks like a creature’s hair, with two points of light that might be stars forming its eyes, the Associated Press reported.

Les comparto dos fotos de nuestra supervisión a las obras del Tren Maya: una, tomada por un ingeniero hace tres días, al parecer de un aluxe; otra, de Diego Prieto de una espléndida escultura prehispánica en Ek Balam. Todo es místico. pic.twitter.com/Tr5OP2EqmU

— Andrés Manuel (@lopezobrador_) February 25, 2023

Mr Lopez Obrador shared a second photo of a sculpture depicting the mythological creature from Ek Balam, an archaeological site on the Yucatán Peninsula where workers are constructing a tourist train.

“Everything is mystical,” he wrote in the post, which has been viewed more than 5.5 million times.

The photo shared by Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Picture: Twitter

However, social media users were quick to point out that the photo the President had shared was actually taken in 2021 in Indonesia, when a man in the city of Singkawang snapped a series of photos of what local media described as a “demonic figure” with a hairy body like a monkey.

“That engineer was taking the piss,” one person replied.

Mr Lopez Obrador, 69, has indigenous heritage through his paternal grandparents and has long expressed reverence for indigenous beliefs. In the 1970s he headed the Indigenous People’s Institute of Tabasco, in his first public position.

According to Mayan belief, aluxes are a type of small, mischievous woodland spirit, around knee-high, similar to other “little people” from different cultural traditions such as elves or leprechauns.

Aluxes are elflike creatures from Mayan folklore. Picture: Twitter

Typically invisible unless they wish to show themselves to humans, aluxes are said to reside in forests, fields, stones and caves and are fond of playing tricks on people, such as hiding or destroying things.

They can also take on frightening forms such as dark shadows with glowing red eyes, and can cause mayhem and destruction if not appeased.

Many farmers leave small offerings of food for aluxes in return for guarding their fields, and even build small houses for the creatures to live in.

The Mayan civilisation reached its peak from around 200AD to 800AD on the Yucatán Peninsula and surrounding parts of Central America, until the conquest of the region by the Spanish in the 1600s.

To this day there are around 800,000 native Yucatec Maya speakers, out of around six million people in the broader region who speak one of the 33 Mayan languages.